Entropy

by Michael McGinty

Our extinction is inevitable.

Not through some random apocalyptic event, but by the natural decline of the human swarm until its eventual demise. So says entropy in the second law of thermodynamics.

Bill Bartles is one of the manifold data washers from the Department of Receipt and Organization of New Content, or DRONC as they prefer to be called. His purpose? Locate new information, clean it up, and add it to the Infinity Drive. Or as he often quips: Find all the knowledge ever created by mankind, strip out the crap, and save it to a little black box, no bigger than a shoebox. That’s his brief, simple and sweet.

Bartles has it all: a captivating companion, an inner-city apartment mid-way up the tall-tower, and an imminent promotion. For him, life is great—except for his obsession with entropy and its promise that nothing lasts forever.

When he digs too deep into the forbidden archives of Aleph-1—the avant-garde CPU that controls the Infinity Drive—Bartles’ perfect life is shattered, plunging him into an unrecognizable world of blood-red wastelands, empty mega-cities, and receding oceans. A dangerous place inhabited by new apex predators, where the remnants of humanity struggle on the brink of extinction.

Now, locked in the fight of our lives against entropy, Bill Bartles must decide if saving the last of humanity is worth losing the Infinity Drive, and with it, all the knowledge of mankind …

In this stunning debut novel, McGinty brings us science-fiction at its best. Set against an ominous backdrop of desolation and decay, ENTROPY asks the question: with every trivial moment of our time here saved to file, can the human condition continue long after we’re gone?

353 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 30, 2022

About the author

Born and raised in Kalgoorlie, in the goldfields of Western Australia, I moved to Perth in the late 70’s to study a Bachelor of Engineering Degree (in Electronics) at Curtin University (or WAIT in the olden ☹ days).

With a good science fiction novel in hand and a life-long passion for technology and innovation, I have always imagined a future for humanity built around technologies that might seem impossible today, yet possible when we imagine tomorrow.

When not writing, I run a software development company (https://www.cyinnovations.com), love 70’s heavy rock music, and cheer on my beloved West Coast Eagles AFL team. And I often go fishing in the Australian never-never.

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ENTROPY: A Post-Apocalyptic Novel of the End of Mankind

“If you are a fan of intelligent science fiction set in the far future like Blade Runner, or if you enjoy movies such as The Matrix series you will find plenty to love here. For anyone this book is worth reading but science fiction fans are going to get the most out of it.” – Adam Wright (Reedsy Discovery)

“Cutting Edge Cyberpunk. A chilling, thrilling ride down the corridors of unbridled data streams aimed at capturing the very soul of humanity …” – Mark Muse (Goodreads Author)

“Themes from several other stories came to mind during Bartles’s adventure: The Time Machine with its exploration of humanity’s disturbing future; We Can Remember It for You Wholesale in which reality and fabricated reality play havoc with both the characters and the reader; Riddley Walker with its ruined landscape and oddball artifacts of England as it existed before total nuclear war.” – Alex Austin (Goodreads Author)

Reviews

[Clay Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much techno-babble for me to understand this story.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

First of all its always nice to welcome a new author to the sci fi genre and thanks for providing me with a few hours of enjoyment and escapism. Cerainly the story whilst not hugely original (imagine a matrix / jules verne time machine / the road / mad max mash up - whats not to like) was entertaining and had a clear story arc that gave momentum pulling you through each act to the end plus an epilogue (which I revisited many times.) I'd like to think that mankind's future follows a different path than described here buth then again in the multiverse I'm sure there will be (along with a better version of me).

It would be quite interesting to see how the Venusians take their discovery forward and follow their adventures into the Unknown, after all who doesn't love a spaceship (the bigger the better :-).

Nice one Michael and enjoy your coffee at the Twig and Sparrow.

I'd encourage all sci fi readers to give this book a go if nothing else to encourage independent authors.

[Jim Arrowood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book for free and am leaving this review voluntarily.

The story in Mike McGinty's debut novel, Entropy, is an attention-grabbing tale of a future when things have gone from comfortable to terrible for principal character Bill Bartles, as well as the world he lives in. It is a fast-paced story of a man who is charged with looking at past events, stripping away all the static, and uploading what he filteres to a database contained in a space no bigger than a shoebox.

Entropy is a hard sci-fi, dystopian look at a grim future for humanity.

When I began reading Entropy, I found it commanding my attention. I was mesmerized by the story in its pages and whenever I had time to pick it up, I was drawn into a nightmarish world where chaos rules, and it's everyone for themselves.

I enjoyed Entropy. It ran me through an entire gamut of emotions, from being horrified, through sadness, and even some triumphant moments. It is an intense look into the future where there might be danger lurking around every corner. I had to pay attention because there were a few things I knew little about - at the same time, everything was adequately explained.

Bill Bartels lives in a city where life is strictly regulated. As long as one follows the rules, everything seems to work well, but going against established procedures have consequences. His life is quite comfortable - he lives in a nice apartment, has a girlfriend, and nearly everything he needs to live. He works near the bottom of a corporate ladder that goes very high. His job is to gather all human knowledge, sift it to be sure there is no spin left to taint the information, and finally store it on a device called the Infinity Drive. Bill does his job so well, he expects a promotion soon, but something goes wrong.

During a session taking a deep dive into the archives of the Infinity Drive's controller, he finds something disturbing. Outside the city is death and devastation, the result of numerous man-made disasters. In effect, Bill discovers a state of social entropy existing outside the city, and he is compelled to investigate. What compels him is that he is caught discovering forbidden information and the corporations do not want it to become common knowledge. He escapes the city and enters a world the likes of which he had no idea existed.

Along his journey, he discovers many disturbing facts and learns that humanity is doomed to end in the not-too-distant future.

For much of the tale, Bill is accompanied by an antisocial curmudgeon, simply known as The Thinker, who helps Bill with his decision if saving the dregs of humanity is worth the loss of the Infinity Drive.

The Thinker takes Bill on a tour of the ruined world and presents him with some disturbing looks into the realities of Social Entropy.

My favorite point of plot is the author’s illustration of the extremes between strict social control, and the lack thereof. It shows what can happen in two different worlds on the same planet when things are out of balance. It made me think of a lot of the things I witnessed during the height of the recent COVID Pandemic. How panicked people were hoarding supplies. How people began making their own rules and ignoring established laws. How people were behaving irrationally in general. Had things not calmed down, what might our world look today? I shudder to imagine it. We got a glimpse looking into an abyss, but Entropy takes it the rest of the way. It is not a world I would want to live in.

Another favorite point of plot was how the mood of the story changed in the blink of an eye. As the story opened, I felt as though I were reading a comedic story. There were things that struck me as being funny, but that didn't last long as the life of the principal character became unhinged as he became more aware of the realities of the world he lived in.

The overarching theme of Entropy is Social Entropy, as outlined by the second law of thermodynamics. My takeaway is an understanding of the concept of Social Entropy. When the constructs of living in communities break down, when there are no longer laws, in the absence of institutions that maintain order, society descends into chaos. It is a point at which irrationality rules and survival is the rule of the day. The strong survive at the expense of the weak. One example cited in my reading was what happens during war.

Entropy will make one think. It has a very familiar flavor in the light of headlines presented in the last few years. It takes the themes we have witnessed in reality and projects them into a future where it wasn't pulled back from the brink of tipping into disaster. We are still healing from the chaos witnessed during the pandemic, but this story gives us a look into what might be if some disaster, or combination of disasters, is left to follow its course. I see Entropy as a warning to societies telling us to take care of each other or we may face our own extinction.

I recommend this book to readers who like hard sci-fi and who enjoy post-apocalyptic and dystopian themed books. It is well thought out and disturbing. It caused me to have a few nightmares. While that may seem like a bad thing, perhaps it is just what we need to keep humanity moving in a positive direction.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

A data-washer in the Department of Receipt and Organization of New Content (DRONC), Bill Bartles has no complaints—well, maybe a few. Charged with compiling all of humankind’s knowledge, culling the wheat from the chaff, and storing it in a box not much bigger than a lunch pail, he is frustrated with his position at the bottom of the corporate ladder (just above a janitor). Despite his thwarted ambitions, he remains humble, grateful, and no rebel. He follows the rules of company and city, which are many. It’s a world of codes, regulations, and regimentation, author McGinty does a marvelous job creating this lock-step utopia/dystopia. To get around outside the office, Bartles—and everyone else—wear LEGS, self-propelling devices that wrap around one’s legs and propel the wearer forward at the rate of 7.29 feet per second, the mandated speed. Everyone wears these devices, and to avoid collisions, travels in the same direction. The mass of humanity moves along like columns of ants.

If Bill’s title and his position on the corporate ladder aren’t all they should be, and his world irksome, his girlfriend Jennifer makes it more than tolerable. With cherry-colored lips, glistening dark hair, exquisite features, off-the shoulder dresses and a yen for love-making, Jennifer lights up his life. In his eyes, she’s perfect, and for her alone, Bill Bartles will stay the course, not go looking for trouble. Unfortunately, a little bug gets in his ear. The bothersome insect is entropy.

Merriam-Webster defines entropy is the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system; the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity; the general trend of the universe toward death and disorder.

Within the data, Bartles has seen entropy.

Bill Bartles has a good life, but could it be ending? Galvanized by that possibility, he digs deeper into the data, until alarms go off at the top of the corporate ladder. The guys in charge aren’t happy with Bartle’s investigation and soon make it known to him. His well-ordered world is turned upside down. Horrors beset him with the promise of worse to come. Our frightened and bewildered common man sets out to escape from the only place he has known. Perhaps in the world outside the enclosed city, he can find the answers. His desperate escape involves him with a foul-mouthed, paranoid and truculent street urchin who wants nothing to do with him. The escapades of data-washer and guttersnipe are a gem of SciFi slapstick, but it is only after the two separate that Bartles treds the tortured path to truth.

Themes from several other stories came to mind during Bartles’s adventure: The Time Machine with its exploration of humanity’s disturbing future; We Can Remember It for You Wholesale" in which reality and fabricated reality play havoc with both the characters and the reader; Riddley Walker with its ruined landscape and oddball artifacts of England as it existed before total nuclear war.

As Bartles searches the failed world outside, he will come across remnants of humanity and devolved technology. His descriptions of technology’s ruins are stunning: mining for buried plastic, the remains of a carbon capture project gone wrong, a Science Center where he finds a copy of Origin of the Species. But it’s Bartles's encounters with the sad and desperate people of the sun-scorched plane that reveal his true character. He wants to help, though the world may be beyond that. He will also encounter the Thinker, a doppelganger, who fills in the blanks.

Entropy is sometimes a demanding read—you’ll come across high-level math, computer code and physics. The end is mysterious and baffling (has Bartles’s quest been the futile pursuit of an unobtainable goal as in The Castle?)—but at the same time dramatically satisfying. McGinty's stoked imagine provides many powerful and beautiful scenes.

[Caleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entropy the debut novel of Michael McGinty, telling an amazing story that I quickly fell in love with. At times I even found it hard to put down. It’s a hard-science post-apocalyptic story in a future far from now filled with interesting concepts and possibilities.

The story is fascinating, and the setting creative. The story is from the point of view of one Mr. Bill Bartels and takes place in a world of complete and perfect order. It is a technological paradise that bill finds out to be a lie. However, in his attempts to understand social entropy, he digs too deep and then finds himself thrust into the real world, where life isn’t as perfect as he was used to.

While reading I was so engrossed in the book, that I found it hard to put down when I needed to. The storytelling kept raising questions which needed answering, which left me wanting to read farther to find the answers, even when I needed to work on other things.

Given that this is a hard-science setting, it should be expected that everything in the book, or at least most of it, is scientifically realistic. I can not say if that is the case, as my knowledge on some of the topics is limited. However, all throughout the book scientific concepts are described in ways that are easy to understand by the average reader, allowing for the reader to learn things that they haven’t already known.

I am especially at awe with the second chapter. Without giving spoilers, all throughout chapter two, the technical expertise of McGinty as an engineer is portrayed in the writing, though written in a way that makes it feel mystical to the average reader. Though as a tech-minded person myself, I found myself wondering if some of the things said were possible or accurate. Though I admit my technical knowledge is not as much as McGinty’s.

In several points throughout the book, McGinty diverts from the regular writing style to do something more experimental. Examples are the portions of dialog by the unknown digital entities that are surrounded by square brackets. Or during a certain tech-based vision, the end-of-file sentence enders. As a writer who constantly experiments with new ways to do a book, I applaud McGinty for this creativity. However, I would not be surprised if some people found this jarring, or difficult to read. However, from me, I won’t complain. Creativity is important to me, and this shows thinking outside of the box.

Overall, the story of the book is interesting and engaging, if not very hopeless seeming. But it’s a post apocalyptical story, so hopelessness is expected. I would be more upset if there was not a hopeless feeling.

This is an amazing book that I can’t stop thinking about, and I definitely recommend it to readers and book lovers.

[Jonathan Finch · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Prophet: A Law of Physics
“Entropy” got me interested slowly but by the time The Thinker came on the scene I was fully engrossed. With is extreme sci-fi situations and its struggling “heroes” trying to make sense of their existences at the end of time, the novel makes for frightening reading. The apocalyptic scenarios, Biblical in their magnitude, paint frightening pictures of a world we all know gone haywire bonkers. The instinct for survival is there together with nature, mankind’s genius, ultra IT and technology rearing up in nightmarish mode to crush the “little world of man” (“King Lear”). While “Entropy” is certainly not Shakespearian tragedy, in its harrowing grandeur it is trying to do just what Shakespeare certainly did but “our little life is” not “rounded with a sleep” but with a contemplation of our extreme intelligence uniting in death with that second law of thermodynamics evoked so miserably at the novel’s onset / outset out to crush us and doing it all in epic mode!
Oh, yes, all the bad stuff is here – IT, screens, imprisonment, refined governmental control, elitism, dictatorship, herding, violence, infanticide, extinction, nature screaming through atrocious climate havoc, and man, little man, striving to outdo it, to outsomething it, clinging on at the edge of doom while doom is his mind and has already piecemealed him!
(The word-file uploaded and converted and some of the writing – new-page paragraphing - could do with improvement, a careful revision, but overall a great, original attempt at big sci-fi, depicting a future “apocalypse now”.)

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michael McGinty's first outing is a piece of sci-fi that stretches the imagination, stimulates thought and provides entertainment. What more could you want in a book?
Entropy does what the process of entropy says it will do – takes you on a weird and occasionally wonderful ride from order to disorder, in which the protagonist's situation, his co-characters and even logic itself all get progressively more chaotic. You find yourself wondering what could possibly happen next – and then being surprised at the depth of McGinty's imagination.
The writing in Entropy is clear and descriptive, and the story moves along at a fine clip. There are diversions into technology and computer-speak early on that some of us will find a little difficult to follow, but it's all necessary, and those that do understand it will appreciate it.
Mr McGinty is given to the use of similes and metaphors, some of which are brilliant and some of which miss the mark a bit – and overall I would counsel a bit more restraint in their use. But that's the writer in me – I'm sure most readers will find the style as entertaining as the content.
I would certainly recommend Entropy to readers who enjoy science fiction and are able to suspend credulity a little from time to time (as the best science fiction demands), in the name of pure enjoyment.

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Entropy' is a work of great imagination, and great insight. The imagery is vivid, and the language sublime. And, for those of us who work in the technology sector, ghostly references to current technology bring a smile as they remind us how today's great achievements become tomorrow's quaint relics of the past.

The embodiment of 'Entropy' can be found at Chernobyl, which is currently showing us entropy in action, as nature re-takes the abandoned city. McGinty's 'desolation' captures this perfectly; perhaps even more alarmingly, given the much greater time-span over which the story roams.

The characters are well-developed, having their own recognisable personalities; even after we begin to experience second thoughts about their realities. Likewise, the cityscapes and landscapes transport us between mind-numbing regimentation (but, is it real?) and vast wastelands of tenuous survival and sudden death.

A constant underlying theme embraces the power of the mind to manipulate reality; or, perhaps it is the power of reality to manipulate the mind into not perceiving reality at all.

But, ultimately, 'Entropy' is a story which takes us on a journey; from the once was, through the now (in all of its guises) to the what have/will we become.

I exhort you to go along for the ride, and, when you come back, ask yourself if you really understand where you have been. There will be several conflicting answers, and, incredibly, all will be true.

[Sarah J · Rating 3 out of 5]

It took me a little while to get into it but when I did I couldn’t stop.

[Alisha Rowe · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review was originally posted at bit.ly/3Nwmzv3.










In a post-apocalyptic wasteland where thinkers are kept safely within their cities and the others are left to wander the wastelands no one is the wiser. The thinkers are kept blissfully unaware of the horrors outside their walls. As far as they know they live in a blissful Eutopia. However, when one man breaks the cycle and leaves the city he must find a way to right all of these wrongs. The only other option would be to go back and forget once more. Something he is sure he could never do.
I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review. While I normally love post-apocalyptic books I struggled with this one. I will say that this book is a one and done. Based on the ending there is no where else to go on this planet. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

The way the characters are portrayed the reader doesn't gain any sense of closeness or develop an attachment to them. At least I didn't. I can't say I was bothered by the loss of any particular one at a given time. That isn't to say that the book was poorly written, it wasn't. It just didn't spark my interest and keep me wondering to the last page like I believe was the intent.

I will say that the end was a bit of a surprise. All in all the book wasn't terrible it just wasn't for me. While these aren't the reasons I didn't love this book I will tell you a bit more about it. There are giant bugs that the nomadic people capture and eat to remain alive, everywhere is a desolate wasteland, and no one outside of the Thinker cities live inside houses although there are plenty abandoned.

Somehow although they are abandoned and owned by another country that will never visit (no clue if those other countries are as bad as this one, although it seems they likely are) none of the nomads are willing to enter the houses. In fact, if the so dubbed 'helpful man' is an accurate indicator of the masses they say things like 'not allowed' and 'we'll get in trouble'.

[Shahid · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if humanity’s greatest achievement was also its final act? Entropy opens not with explosions or pandemics, but with a quiet decay—the slow unraveling promised by thermodynamics itself. McGinty’s dystopia is eerily plausible, where data is scrubbed and stored endlessly in the Infinity Drive, and meaning slips through the cracks. Bill Bartles, a cynical data washer with a dream life, unearths a secret that tosses him from sleek towers into a dying, predator-ridden world. The story is brilliantly layered—philosophical, thrilling, and strangely poetic. McGinty balances bleak reality with haunting beauty, asking us to consider: Is it better to preserve knowledge or to preserve life? Smart, strange, and spectacularly original, Entropy doesn’t just entertain—it lingers. A must-read for deep sci-fi thinkers.

[Gemma · Rating 5 out of 5]

When trying to find the words to describe Mikes debut novel, I turned to the other reviews for inspiration.

They said it much better than I ever could.

As such, I will not (badly) copy what they say: they say it much more eloquently than I ever could.

What I can add is that the language of Entropy is so immersive and beautiful, in stark contrast to the disquieting subject matter. The little nuggets of contemporary references cleverly scattered throughout the novel remind us that while this is a fiction novel, they are also the unsettling reminder of what if…?

This one will stay with me for a while.

[Dana Hayward · Rating 5 out of 5]

A chilling, thrilling ride down the corridors of unbridled data streams aimed at capturing the very soul of humanity and pulling the protagonist into an escapade along the bowels of consciousness that render reality a dream and threaten to obscure sanity under the cloak of the second law of thermodynamics.